TELEVISION

Apparently Queen Elizabeth isn’t the only person who fact-checks period dramas for fun. This past Sunday, Downton Abbey historical adviser and Sky News royal commentator Alastair Bruce took to Twitter to point out a costuming crime committed by the wardrobe department at War and Peace, a competing period drama currently airing on A&E, Lifetime, and the History Channel in the U.S.

Referring to the first episode of the BBC-produced drama, Bruce used social media to point out that Vicomte de Mortemart, a French character who fled his country during the French Revolution, is depicted wearing Legion d'honneur, an honor given by Napoleon after assuming control of the country’s monarchy. (A modern-day example: If we flee to Canada after Trump is elected president and are depicted in our inevitable Lifetime biopic wearing a “Make America Great Again” trucker hat.)

Outraged at this error, Bruce delivered a sick sartorial diss on Twitter, writing:

Perhaps the most entertaining takeaway from this whole historical costume debate is that Britain’s royal commentating elite have their own highbrow Twitter slang, like “Beeb” (BBC) and “aristo” (aristocrat). Now imagine if Queen Elizabeth has an anonymous Twitter handle she uses to cattily diss period dramas’ pathetic anachronisms.